Book Review: Joe Hill: A Biographical Novel by Wallace Stegner

REVIEWS
Wallace Stegner. JOE H I L L . A BIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL. Lincoln, Nebraska:
University of Nebraska Press, 1980. 381 pp. cloth, $19.50; paper, $5.95.
The first edition of this novel from 1950 ( P r e a c h e r a n d t h e Slave) received
mixed reviews: "extraordinary book" with "glowing style," "satisfactory work,"
"in the end the novel comes off." Damning praise for such an excellent
biographical novel! The technique is not an easy method of revealing the
character of an individual, but Stegner does remarkably well. In addition he
writes with flair and evokes the spirit of the labor movement and the feelings of
those engaged, especially Joe Hill. He (Joseph Hillstrom; Joel Hägglund)
marches through time with his fellow workers, for others now sing his songs,
even some in Swedish anti-American demonstrations in the 1960's. Hill's life of
dedication is why Stegner chose the original title for the rebel was preacher of
and slave to his ideology with its mystical symbols which owed something to his
youthful religious fervor in a Waldenstrom evangelical atmosphere with a
mixture of Salvation Army enthusiasm and music.
Some of the mystery around Joe H i l l has been removed by recent research. For
example, he was named Joel Hägglund and he was legitimate, for his family
included a father, Olof Hägglund, who died when the son was eight. His mother
followed soon thereafter. He left Sweden at twenty-two with his brother and
spent some four years on the East Coast and Midwest before going to
Washington. These early years hardened him into an enemy of "The System."
Working in lumber camps did not alter his belligerency or change his
determination to be part of some labor movement. He turned to the International
Workers of the World, Wobblies, for they seemed the most dedicated and his
companions, for he rarely had friends, pestered him to join. In the IWW he found
his "church." His early musical training and familiarity with Salvation Army
tunes prepared him to write the words for those IWW songs that made him a
popular hero. The music came from American songs, for example the use of
Casey and Number Nine. The words came from his heart and experience in the
IWW. They appeared as sheets, then many in the red book of the IWW for use at
demonstrations and marches.
Stegner's novel uses only the last six years of Joe Hill's life, with three years, or
half, in Salt Lake City. Most of the rest is from San Pedro: Beacon Street, the
wharves, flophouses, and the curious characters who were either part of the
movement or its hangers-on. In Salt Lake among the Saints Joe Hill became a
feared person for his songs inflamed the passions. The copper barons, among
others, wished him moved to some other locale or put where he could do no
harm. His arrest for murder was almost an act from a Greek tragedy because of its
inevitability and its mystery. His trial was monitored by the nation's labor
movement and gifts enabled the defense to secure stays of execution and the
intervention of Sweden for Joe Hill was a Swedish citizen. However, Stegner
errs in creating a mysterious father with political influence behind this effort to
guarantee a fair trial, which could never be. Joe H i l l would not be kept from his
306
fate and he welcomed it; his refusal to offer evidence, if there were any, on his
own behalf was both damaging and typical of the man. It might help to create the
image of the martyrdom that he seemed to seek, but it also got him shot. In this
way, and for his songs, he became a symbol of the injustice of the system for the
radical movement.
Why review the novel again? Because it is a splendid piece of writing, thirty
years have passed since the original, and a new Joe H i l l cult has sprung up (and
died?). We need to be reminded of both the Swedish legacy to America and the
trials of some immigrants when they opposed conservative, traditional norms.
Stegner's Joe H i l l recalls the tragedies among immigrants and all ethnic groups;
we need to see them once again more clearly. And Stegner's artistry has woven
many elements into a tale where the protagonist elicits some sympathy and much
understanding for the struggles of both the IWW and an immigrant who did not
see the American dream except through glasses colored with the violent red of
outrage.
RAYMOND E. LINDGREN
D e p a r t m e n t of H i s t o ry
C a l i f o r n i a State U n i v e r s i t y,
L o n g Beach
Paul Schach (ed.), LANGUAGES IN CONFLICT. LINGUISTIC
A C C U L T U R A T I O N ON T H E GREAT PLAINS. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1980. Pp. xi-186.
Each of the essays in this well selected, well edited, and well printed
collection might well merit as much comment as can here be given to the entire
book. As every bilingual and/or recent descendant of "other-speaking" ancestors
cannot help knowing, the subject matter of linguistic acculturation is vast in
scope and complex in detail. The problems of acquiring, shedding, blending, or
adapting lexical material, articulation patterns, semantic shadings, etc. are
multiplied by individual and social factors, political, legal, and economic
patterns, and geographical details, all of these multiplied by the number of
languages involved, the degree to which they impinge upon one another, and the
rate at which they are required to compete. What is customarily referred to as
bilingualism is often in fact triglossia or even polyglossia, in which differing
levels of one language (regional variants, or dialects as contrasted with "high"
speech, usually the standard literary language) co-exist with (possibly differing
levels of) another language, in the present case English.
In separate but complementary articles, Folke Hedblom of Uppsala and Nils
Hasselmo of Minnesota focus on, respectively, the preservation of Swedish
dialects in the Midwest, and the decline of American Swedish through the
laming effect of a competition between two or more variant dialects as well as
between a dialect and högsvenska. Hedblom finds amazing relicts. Hasselmo
surmises that under certain conditions a "viable" American Swedish might have
arisen. Now, however, the language is all but extinct, to be replaced by academic
Swedish taught as a foreign tongue.
Einar Haugen comments on a portion of his earliest research into his own
inherited Oppdal dialect (from Sør Trøndelag, Norway), spoken in and around
Sioux Falls, South Dakota since 1869. In the summer of 1929, while still a
307

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REVIEWS
Wallace Stegner. JOE H I L L . A BIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL. Lincoln, Nebraska:
University of Nebraska Press, 1980. 381 pp. cloth, $19.50; paper, $5.95.
The first edition of this novel from 1950 ( P r e a c h e r a n d t h e Slave) received
mixed reviews: "extraordinary book" with "glowing style," "satisfactory work,"
"in the end the novel comes off." Damning praise for such an excellent
biographical novel! The technique is not an easy method of revealing the
character of an individual, but Stegner does remarkably well. In addition he
writes with flair and evokes the spirit of the labor movement and the feelings of
those engaged, especially Joe Hill. He (Joseph Hillstrom; Joel Hägglund)
marches through time with his fellow workers, for others now sing his songs,
even some in Swedish anti-American demonstrations in the 1960's. Hill's life of
dedication is why Stegner chose the original title for the rebel was preacher of
and slave to his ideology with its mystical symbols which owed something to his
youthful religious fervor in a Waldenstrom evangelical atmosphere with a
mixture of Salvation Army enthusiasm and music.
Some of the mystery around Joe H i l l has been removed by recent research. For
example, he was named Joel Hägglund and he was legitimate, for his family
included a father, Olof Hägglund, who died when the son was eight. His mother
followed soon thereafter. He left Sweden at twenty-two with his brother and
spent some four years on the East Coast and Midwest before going to
Washington. These early years hardened him into an enemy of "The System."
Working in lumber camps did not alter his belligerency or change his
determination to be part of some labor movement. He turned to the International
Workers of the World, Wobblies, for they seemed the most dedicated and his
companions, for he rarely had friends, pestered him to join. In the IWW he found
his "church." His early musical training and familiarity with Salvation Army
tunes prepared him to write the words for those IWW songs that made him a
popular hero. The music came from American songs, for example the use of
Casey and Number Nine. The words came from his heart and experience in the
IWW. They appeared as sheets, then many in the red book of the IWW for use at
demonstrations and marches.
Stegner's novel uses only the last six years of Joe Hill's life, with three years, or
half, in Salt Lake City. Most of the rest is from San Pedro: Beacon Street, the
wharves, flophouses, and the curious characters who were either part of the
movement or its hangers-on. In Salt Lake among the Saints Joe Hill became a
feared person for his songs inflamed the passions. The copper barons, among
others, wished him moved to some other locale or put where he could do no
harm. His arrest for murder was almost an act from a Greek tragedy because of its
inevitability and its mystery. His trial was monitored by the nation's labor
movement and gifts enabled the defense to secure stays of execution and the
intervention of Sweden for Joe Hill was a Swedish citizen. However, Stegner
errs in creating a mysterious father with political influence behind this effort to
guarantee a fair trial, which could never be. Joe H i l l would not be kept from his
306
fate and he welcomed it; his refusal to offer evidence, if there were any, on his
own behalf was both damaging and typical of the man. It might help to create the
image of the martyrdom that he seemed to seek, but it also got him shot. In this
way, and for his songs, he became a symbol of the injustice of the system for the
radical movement.
Why review the novel again? Because it is a splendid piece of writing, thirty
years have passed since the original, and a new Joe H i l l cult has sprung up (and
died?). We need to be reminded of both the Swedish legacy to America and the
trials of some immigrants when they opposed conservative, traditional norms.
Stegner's Joe H i l l recalls the tragedies among immigrants and all ethnic groups;
we need to see them once again more clearly. And Stegner's artistry has woven
many elements into a tale where the protagonist elicits some sympathy and much
understanding for the struggles of both the IWW and an immigrant who did not
see the American dream except through glasses colored with the violent red of
outrage.
RAYMOND E. LINDGREN
D e p a r t m e n t of H i s t o ry
C a l i f o r n i a State U n i v e r s i t y,
L o n g Beach
Paul Schach (ed.), LANGUAGES IN CONFLICT. LINGUISTIC
A C C U L T U R A T I O N ON T H E GREAT PLAINS. Lincoln: University of
Nebraska Press, 1980. Pp. xi-186.
Each of the essays in this well selected, well edited, and well printed
collection might well merit as much comment as can here be given to the entire
book. As every bilingual and/or recent descendant of "other-speaking" ancestors
cannot help knowing, the subject matter of linguistic acculturation is vast in
scope and complex in detail. The problems of acquiring, shedding, blending, or
adapting lexical material, articulation patterns, semantic shadings, etc. are
multiplied by individual and social factors, political, legal, and economic
patterns, and geographical details, all of these multiplied by the number of
languages involved, the degree to which they impinge upon one another, and the
rate at which they are required to compete. What is customarily referred to as
bilingualism is often in fact triglossia or even polyglossia, in which differing
levels of one language (regional variants, or dialects as contrasted with "high"
speech, usually the standard literary language) co-exist with (possibly differing
levels of) another language, in the present case English.
In separate but complementary articles, Folke Hedblom of Uppsala and Nils
Hasselmo of Minnesota focus on, respectively, the preservation of Swedish
dialects in the Midwest, and the decline of American Swedish through the
laming effect of a competition between two or more variant dialects as well as
between a dialect and högsvenska. Hedblom finds amazing relicts. Hasselmo
surmises that under certain conditions a "viable" American Swedish might have
arisen. Now, however, the language is all but extinct, to be replaced by academic
Swedish taught as a foreign tongue.
Einar Haugen comments on a portion of his earliest research into his own
inherited Oppdal dialect (from Sør Trøndelag, Norway), spoken in and around
Sioux Falls, South Dakota since 1869. In the summer of 1929, while still a
307